I'm a person who gets bored Very easily of anything that isn't to his taste, and also of anything that from the get-go is known for being more than 3 hours long all in one go.
I've watched most big movies from when I was a kid (before 2010), for comparison and maybe it's a bad one, movies like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings around that time and even those at times bored me if it wasn't for some action packed scenes.
Although I always loved anime, again, as a kid, I only watched big shounen shows or niche products but always those with very tight animations and back to back bloodrushing sequences or edgy setting (aside from the big 3 at the time Darker than Black comes to mind immediately for me).
I'd say I was a pretty average user up till that point, an average kid with average tastes and attention span. With that said...
I've been in a very dark period of my life 2 years ago, and while searching and scuttling about looking for something to entertain me and to make me feel better I stumbled upon Seven Samurai.
Not the anime but the Original movie by Akira Kurosawa, the one from 1954.
Why a completely average young adult found solace in a 3 and a half hours long jidaigeki is because of two things, I'll be honest: the "despair" I felt at the time, and "pride" in having watched something that in all likeness all my peers wouldn't dream of watching.
BUT
Maybe because of the situation I was in, maybe because I was very "tense" and "susceptible" to certain themes, I hella loved it. I stayed till the end and watched every second of it almost without blinking. The movie conveys many things you'd find in a sengoku-era jidaigeki: honor, trust, camaraderie and most of all to make a Stand, a selfless sacrifice for something or someone that is helpless or beyond hope without Any reward in return. A beautiful and forgotten concept portrayed flawlessly in a 1954, post world war 2, black and white, japanese movie with smelly farmers.
Since then, I revamped my appetite for curiosity, and watched a multitude of movies and anime (altho I haven't wrote a review for all of them ofc), not randomly, but always picking up whatever could really light the fire in my soul so to speak, and eventually I gave Samurai 7 a try, going in knowingly that it could never possibly surpass the original Of Course. Even so... Even knowing that... My disappointment was abysmal. It's been a while since I saw it, and I remember most of it, but now that I made an account (for completely different reasons tho) and while thinking of reviews to write as a practice I thought to myself that I could be doing good by saving some souls.
---I WON'T GO IN-DEPTH NOR GIVE ANY SPOILER---
(END OF PREFACE)
Samurai 7 takes you into a steam-punk sengoku era Japan... I guess, don't care. The anime itself aside from the first episode makes you stop caring about that, because when you take the same exact premise of the Movie but add crazy technologies into it... It'll boggle your mind with a myriad of questions and that's already a bad start.
If a sensible somebody, an average anybody, who comes in with any knowledge of the original movie and looks at the first, heck maybe even the second episode they'd leave. Immediately, they'd leave. Those who stay... They do probably because of the same reasons I stayed to watch Seven Samurai, pride.
That or you're really just really, really, new to the genre.
For fans of the original, it is... I was gonna say insulting but that's not exactly it, I guess they tried to take the original and add more flavor to the characters failing tremendously. Now I don't say that the characters are badly done I liked some of them and for a "re-imagining" I guess it can be ok, but my main problem is that you're taking an original property and changing things around, TOO many things around. I hate when they do that, it feels like a netflix western adaptation animated by a japanese studio instead of something that they came up with, hell if you're into that they already did a great job with Magnificent Seven just six years after.
Besides, the whole point of that would be to draw in people interested based on the original and to keep them interested, but so many, so many things are OUT OF PLACE or feel too forced. If you ever felt that 3 and half hours would be too much for a movie (even tho they weren't and you'd be glued to the screen every second in the OG) 26-episodes is way too much.
Many times I really, truly, felt like I was listening to an unfunny joke that was lasting way too long for it to be funny anymore. I'd say the anime should've ended halfway through after they've dealt with what the original movie was about but NO.
They just HAD to drag you and to force on you plot that... Adds nothing but misery.
------ TL;DR ------
Story:
If you come from the Movie, don't bother, you'll suffer. If you're new to... anime in general, your time is much better spent with Demon Slayer or Bleach if you're into samurai and katanas, or anything else really.
Art:
Maybe this is the only one I'll concede, the steam-punk elements are really nice, and the locations and settings feel very fresh and makes for good ambience, almost Kill la Kill-esque or Trigger-esque really, don't know if they worked together and really don't care but if this concept was taken and upon it they wrote an original story it would've been a hit, or it least it would've had a good following I guarantee it, because the quality art is there, 'tho nothing mind-blowing if you're a veteran but still.
Sound:
I don't remember it. I guess it was decent. When you don't remember something it means it really didn't made any impression on you. Not good, not terrible, just bland enough to be forgotten. Surely you've started humming something out of the blue or in a particular situation, that's when something is very good or apt in a given a case, that's what makes the sound department memorable, but here it just isn't.
Characters:
Ok -> if you've never heard of the original or you're very, very new to anime in general.
Unnecessary, forced, tropy -> anyone else.
That's the gist of it, If I were to go in-depth I'd commit verbal murder, third degree.
Enjoyment:
Again, if you're into samurais and fights, you already know there is better, if you're here is most likely because you've seen or heard of the original, in which case, there is Only misery here, not just for you but even the characters. There is no happiness, nor enjoyment here, I'm not sure they even know where they were going with this because even for a lesser mind (such as mine) you'd find or feel something at the end of a show. But here, there is either. Mu - nothingness. And it's not solace since you weren't actually trying to escape from anything but came here to enjoy something. Either that, or your disappointment would be so great, so deep that you'll try to forget it asap, or like me try to warn everybody before they waste, literally WASTE more than 9 hours of their lives.
Most of all, if you're a hot-head firebrand like myself and will watch it for pride in having it watched for yourself my first advice is "don't" there are no victors here, second DON'T do it in one go like binge watching because the misery you'll feel will be even greater.
Overall:
Why studios and anyone really would take and original property and f... Mess with it, therefore making absolutely nobody happy besides maybe those who are none the wiser, which aren't at fault, yet, is beyond me. If you wanted to make an anime out of this I'd say take the original, make a short season of heck a dozen episodes, or an animated movie sure, whatever, but don't go around putting unnecessary stuff in, focus on the animations, the sound, the art but don't change everything for the sake of inclusion or putting your personal view into it, if you wanted to do that, that's fine but create your own.
Fans of the original, stay as far as you can from this.
Fans of anime, go watch the original, don't let me catch any of you going around thinking this was the original thing (even tho it's written at the beginning that it isn't)
Fans of samurai and katanas and duels, you already know. What you're looking for is not here, look at the guy with the green-checkered haori.
Samurai 7 is a waste of your time.
And time is the only thing that we humans are given by nature to spend freely.
Don't do this to yourself. Stop at the original as nothing will top that.
